Regional cinema doesn’t get the support it should: Priyanka Chopra

Priyanka Chopra, the first South Asian woman to star in an American TV show, recently bagged her second nomination at the People’s Choice Awards. Last year, the actor had won the ‘Favourite Actress in a New TV Series’ award at the event. Despite her foreign projects, Priyanka hasn’t stopped work in India — she has produced three regional language films so far and plans to do more work in regional cinema.

When asked why she started producing films in regional languages, Priyanka says, “I started with regional cinema because I found some really interesting scripts that I wanted to make. I think regional cinema doesn’t get the support it should. It’s a massive industry.”

The actor plans to produce films in the Hindi film industry as well. “I am a Punjabi, I was born in Bihar, and I’ve been living in Maharashtra. I backed a Bhojpuri film, a Punjabi film and a Marathi film, as I found some really amazing scripts. But that doesn’t mean I won’t produce films in Hindi or English. I am going to produce projects here (USA); I am going to produce films in India too.”

The actor has also dabbled with dubbing in various languages for her American TV show. Ask her if learning new languages is something that she likes, and Priyanka says, “I’d love to learn a language, whether it is Urdu, French or any other language. It’s so much fun. To me, art is not restricted by borders or languages. It can come from anywhere, go anywhere. I just want to be a story-teller.”

Priyanka Chopra, who is currently shooting for the second season of Quantico, will next be seen in Baywatch co-starring Dwayne Johnson .